Gracie
by AthenasOwl11
Summary: When Percy and Annabeth set out to find a new demigod, they meet a young girl named Gracie who isn't exactly your typical demigod- but then again, what IS an average half-blood? Rated K plus for minimal violence and no foul language.


Gracie

**This is my first fanfic, please don't flame! Also, I tried to make Gracie as weird as possible without making her stupid. She does _not _have mental problems. She is just random and young. **

**Please read my story, and don't forget to review!**

**Disclaimer:**

**I do not own pickles.**

**I do not own fish.**

**I do not own PJO,**

**But I own this!**

**(This being the story.)**

**I also don't own lanyards, Marley and Me, slapjack, poker, Justin Bieber, hip-hop, or Finding**** Nemo. I only own my OC, Gracie, and this story. **

It was a normal go-find-a-new-demigod day for Annabeth and I. Chiron had detected a minorly powerful magic source, either a demigod or a monster, coming from Manhattan. I dearly hoped it was a demigod. The magic was coming from Upper East Side, a few blocks past where I live. Probably an apartment if it was a half-blood.

Annabeth was on Porkpie while I rode Blackjack. The two horses were apparently having a contest to see who had the bigger vocabulary. That meant they were insulting each other with curses and other words I didn't know existed. I'm pretty sure they got half of this stuff from Shakespeare.

_Thou art an artless base-course apple john! _Blackjack told Porkpie rudely. Sometimes I wished I wasn't able to hear the horses in my head.

_Come bite my hoof, you lout! _Porkpie retorted. I didn't know if they were playing or just being weird.

Blackjack called Porkpie a string of ugly names I probably won't need to ever repeat, unless I ever got caught in a verbal fight to the death.

"Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said over the wind, interrupting my thoughts, "let's land on the roof of your apartment building. We can walk to the house from there, it's about a mile up the street."

I nodded and landed the Pegasus on the gravelly rooftop of my home. "Can we stop at my place so I can talk to my mom if she's home?" I was excited to see my mother after a month at camp. She didn't like that I stayed for the whole summer, but I kinda had to. It was hard for a hal-blood to live in the mortal world, especially powerful ones like me.

"I don't think we have time, Percy," Annabeth replied. "Chiron said to get this new camper as soon as possible."

"Okay," I said, a little disappointed.

We left the building and walked the mile to the new half-blood's house. Annabeth lead the way, pressing the elevator button (_Baby _by Justin Bieber was playing. Annabeth made a big show of covering her ears and muttering darkly about Justin Bieber sounding like a girl. I had to agree with her.) and finding the right apartment. I didn't know anything about the camper-to-be.

The door to the apartment (B3 on the fourth floor) was opened by a young-looking girl with long brown hair and pale brown eyes.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully. "Are you another door-to-door sales guy? My mom said you people are idiots."

"Um, no," I said.

"Yeah, those people are stupid," she continued. "Who _wants _to buy another vacuum cleaner? Everyone already has one. I think my mom has two. And whenever we need something, we buy it at a store, or eBay." She paused for a moment, as if noticing we were there. Annabeth gave me a look that said _Crazy person, twelve o'clock_. "Anyway, do you guys wanna come in?" The girl didn't even ask who we were. Either she was a bit nutty or she was very friendly.

"My name is Annabeth Chase, and this is Percy Jackson." Annabeth was obviously reluctant to reply, given the girl's eagerness to talk. It was a bit unnerving, I had to admit, but she seemed okay.

"I'm Gracie," the girl replied with a big smile. "So why are you to kids here?"

It was weird of her to call us kids; Annabeth and I were both at least a foot taller than her and far older. "Have you ever seen a Greek monster before, Gracie?" That's Annabeth; cutting right to the point.

"Yeah I have." Gracie said it like we were asking her if she had taken out the trash. "There are a few big black dogs outside, too. My mom makes me stay inside. Did you know that my neighbor Willow is bad at math? She can't do times tables right, so I have to help her with math homework."

"_Hellhounds?!" _Annabeth demanded. "There are _hellhounds _outside?"

"Yep. They don't let me come out of the building. They growl and snarl and spit fire and drool. It's really gross. The zebra at the zoo once drooled. That was even more gross, because it was chewing on grass and the grass came out in the drool."

"Gross," I muttered. I looked at Annabeth. "Why did they let us come in?"

"They let _you _in because you smell funny. I guess the dogs don't like horse poop." Gracie wrinkled her nose.

"Wha-" I began, but then I remembered Annabeth and I cleaned out the stables before coming.

"Yeah, I don't like horse poop either. Or any kind of animal feces, really. Did you know it's also called scat?" Gracie asked inquisitively.

"I did," said Annabeth impatiently. "How many monsters do you see a day?"

"Usually forty or fifty. I can count them from my window. I can also see the weird man across the street his afternoon shower, but I try not to look." She made a face, then laughed. "He brought us cookies the day we moved in. They tasted like feet mixed with rotted nutmeg. My mom only let me eat one because she barfed."

"Um, okay," I said uncertainly. "I don't think those cookies sound good."

"They weren't," said Gracie. "The big mean dogs that wait on the street aren't nice. I don't like them. They attacked a boy with a big silver helmet and a weird glowing sword. He killed some, but I don't know if he was okay. He wore a purple shirt that made the big snake lady mad."

"Wait, big snake lady? Guy with a purple shirt?" Annabeth's eyes were wide and slightly confused.

"Is she just rambling?" I asked her quietly. "Gracie seems to do that a lot."

"Oh, look, there's a dog now," Gracie said. Somehow she had silently run the ten yards from the kitchen to the window while I had been talking to Annabeth. "The dogs are looking mad and are spitting fire again."

"There are hellhounds on the street _right now_. Of _course_." Annabeth was looking seriously pissed right now. "I can't believe it. A child of Posideon, Athena, and… is there a god of crazy people? A bunch of powerful demigods together in a building-"

"I don't know if there's a god of crazy people," Gracie inturrupted. "But there is a god of insanity, I think. His name is Dionysus. He's cool, like Hypnos. Hypnos can make people fall asleep with his mind. Imagine the mustaches you could draw on people's faces with marker while they were asleep! And Dionysus can probably make grape juice wherever he goes, so you don't need to spend five bucks on a carton of grape juice at school."

"That's expensive grape juice," I said.

"It's five dollars at the federal prison in Queens. **(A/N I actually have no idea if it's 5$ there, because I have never been to New York.)** My class took a field trip there. There was an inmate who called my teacher pretty. She hit him with her purse." Gracie smirked. "He had it coming."

"That's cool, but we have to figure out how to get out of here!" I said.

"My building has a roof," Gracie said. "I saw you guys flying your horses to the building down the street. The black one wasn't nice to the other one. I saw them neighing and kicking and stuff, glaring at each other." It was true. Although it had been no problem for me, Annabeth had gotten a little air sick.

"How clear do you think she can see through the Mist?" I asked Annabeth.

"I don't think the Mist exists for her," she said. "She probably has completely clear eyesight of the mythological world. I didn't even think that was possible for a demigod." She turned to Gracie, who was absently doing a pink and purple lanyard. Where did she get a lanyard?!

"I think there are more dogs down there," Gracie said, as she loped the pink strings over the purple. "They don't like the people."

"We gotta go," Annabeth sighed, grabbing my hand. I grabbed Gracie's arm and she cried, "Wait! Let me write my mom a note! She said this day would come."

Annabeth whipped out a pencil and a pad of paper from her jacket pocket. "Make it quick."

Gracie scribbled down a note and stuck it on the refrigerator with a magnet in the shape of the Earth.

I glanced at the note and read it as quickly as my dyslexia would allow.

_Hey mom. It's Gracie. You told me the people would come, and they did. I guess I'll see you again, but I'm not sure. I'm being calm like you said. The big black dogs are on the street, but I think they'll be okay. They have the horses you told me about. I love you, and I hope I see you before school starts. _

_Love, Gracie_

I sighed inwardly. Her mom would probably be worried sick. Gracie might even have to stay year-round, depending on her godly parent. It's just not safe for a half-blood in the mortal world.

"Let's go," Annabeth said, leading us to the elevator. Within five hip hop-filled minutes (Again, Annabeth covered her ears. Gracie curled herself in a ball on the floor, yelling about the evil of bad music.) we were on the roof. I mentally called for Blackjack and Porkpie, and they responded immediately.

"Can I ride on the black one?" Gracie asked. She slowly approached Blackjack. When he didn't kick or whinny, she stroked his nose gently. "He's beautiful."

_This one knows her horses!_ Blackjack said smugly. _I think she's okay, boss._

_Hey, how come no one likes me?_ Porkpie protested indignantly.

_Because your coat looks like dry mud. _

_Yours looks like houses after a fire! _

_Stop it, guys, _I told them. _No one's prettier than the other. Just suck it up, Porkpie. Blackjack, stop bragging. _

Both horses went quiet, and Annabeth and I mounted. I pulled Gracie up on Blackjack, telling her how to grab the mane. She was sitting in front of me, leaning on Blackjack's neck. It was a bit weird, not being in front, but she was short enough so I could see over her head.

"Ready?" I called to Annabeth.

"Ready!" she yelled back.

We took off, soaring above the clouds.

"This is _awesome_!" Gracie screeched. "I can see _EVERYTHING _from up here!"

I silently agreed. The view was truly awesome and you could see for miles. But Gracie was taking in the 'you're the child of a Greek god' talk very well. She just nodded and said stuff like "That makes sense" and "I see…". It was weird, just like her. Annabeth was probably right. Her dad was most likely the god of crazy people.

When we landed at camp, we brought Gracie to the Big House. She ran right in, going on about how blue was her favorite color. She sat down at the card table and made herself at home, beating Mr. D at slapjack and poker.

"Impressive," he said. He snapped his fingers and he changed into another purple tracksuit and the cards all changed colors. The last deck was bright green with swirly patterns resembling vines. The new one was a deep purple with tiger stripes.

"My neighbor Mrs. Burke taught me," Gracie said. "She's eighty and used to work at a casino. Her husband was a door-to-door salesman. Mrs. Burke sometimes said he was a good for nothing that loved TV more than her. But he died. Mrs. Burke doesn't talk about him anymore." "That's… depressing," I said.

Chiron rolled in with his wheelchair.

"Hi, Mr. Centaur, sir," Gracie said. "Are you a Palomino or a chestnut?"

"How…" Chiron began uncertainly.

"She can see through the Mist perfectly," Annabeth explained. "I see," Chiron said.

"Did you guys know that Finding Nemo is in 3D now, at most theaters?" Gracie said randomly. "I think that's a good movie."

"Yeah…" I said. "But doesn't the fish die?"

"That's Marley and Me," Gracie corrected.

"Now _that's _a sad movie," Annabeth said.

"It is," Gracie agreed.

"Okay, let's resume the original topic," Chiron said, looking annoyed. "How old are you, Gracie?"

"Eleven," she said. "I'm just kind of short."

"So, she may have to stay in the Hermes cabin for a while," Mr. D said. I had forgotten he was there. "Isn't that the same with everyone else? She's nothing special. Annabelle, Patrick, back to your daily activities. Please lead Georgie to the Hermes cabin."

"My name is Gracie," Gracie said. "His name is Percy, her name is Annabeth, and your name is Dionysus. Can you make me some grape juice before I go?"

"_No_," Mr. D said, pointing to the door.

"Why not?" Gracie whined. "Grape juice is five dollars at this one place in Queens! You are _soo _lucky to be able make grape juice wherever you go. I wish I had grape juice."

"Just go," Mr. D sighed.

That night at dinner, before everyone was sent to their cabins, Gracie was claimed. Her father was Zelus, the god of dedication and emulation. She had proven her strong will and determination. I just wondered how she was going to turn out at camp….

**The end. FOR NOW!**

**I admit, I had a big long thought about who Gracie's father would be. Thanks to Google and Wikipedia for helping me with that decision. Also, in your review, say 'cheese' twice, in any context, if you want Mark of Athena to come out sooner! CHEESE, CHEESE! WRITE FASTER, RICK RIORDAN!**

**Okay, I'm done now.**

**Did you guys get the Roman reference?**

**Also, if some people don't know the meaning of emulation, here it is:**

**verb [with obj.] : To match or surpass (a person or achievement), typically by imitation. **

**I'm not sure if there's a Zelus cabin at Rick's Camp Half-Blood, but there's one in mine. **


End file.
